DOCSLIB.ORG

Read NIJC's Written Testimony Submitted to Congress for This

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Read NIJC's Written Testimony Submitted to Congress for This U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship “The Expansion and Troubling Use of ICE Detention” September 26, 2019 Testimony of Heidi Altman Director of Policy National Immigrant Justice Center Today this Committee bears witness to the testimony of three individuals who have survived the United States’ immigration detention system. They represent three out of nearly 500,000 people who have experienced incarceration in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s jails and prisons just this fiscal year.i Taxpayers are footing a $3.2 billion annual bill for immigration detention,ii but the greater cost is paid by the generations of immigrants and their loved ones who bear the scars of an intentionally opaque and abusive system. A system that is, maybe most tragically, unnecessary. I will begin this testimony by placing the recent dramatic expansion of the immigration detention system in historical context. A slightly wider frame helps us remember that the United States did not always rely on incarceration for the management of migration processes, and its commitment to doing so now is driven by politics and nativism, not rational decision-making. I will also provide an overview of the layers of corruption, abuse and impunity that are the hallmarks of ICE’s detention operations. I will end with a call to the Members of this Committee to pursue visionary and transformative change to the United States’ approach to immigration policy— including an end to immigration detention and the development of truly community-based alternative programming—while ensuring that immediate changes are made to remedy these ongoing rights violations. I serve as the Director of Policy for the National Immigrant Justice Center, an organization headquartered in Chicago and dedicated to ensuring human rights protections and access to justice for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. NIJC’s team works day in and day out to provide meaningful legal services to hundreds of immigrants jailed by ICE throughout the Midwest and nationally, but the task is daunting. As the immigration detention system grows, the abuses and due process violations that are endemic persist and become even more deeply rooted. The history of America’s failed experiment with the mass incarceration of immigrants The immigration detention system as we know it today—a sprawling network consisting largely of contracted prisons and county jails operating under the guise of “administrative detention”— constitutes a relatively new experiment in American history.iii It can be easy to forget this perspective because of the Trump administration’s insistence that there is an ever-expanding “need” for immigration detention capacity.iv Yet only decades ago, the use of detention for the purpose of migration management was an anomaly in United States law and policy, not the norm. The first institutional detention of immigrants in the United States began in the late 1800s on Ellis Island in New York and Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, where most who were detained were held briefly for medical checks before being deported or allowed to continue into the community.v When Ellis Island closed in 1954, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) formally announced it would be abandoning the policy of immigration detention and instead releasing the vast majority of arriving immigrants into the United States on conditional parole, bonds, or supervision.vi Then-Attorney General Herbert Brownell, Jr. described this announcement as a “step forward toward humane administration of the immigration laws.”vii The Supreme Court opined on the progressive nature of the change as well, stating: “Physical detention of aliens is now the exception, not the rule … Certainly this policy reflects humane qualities of an enlightened civilization.”viii This presumption of liberty for immigrants remained in place until the 1980s, when the concept of immigration detention as we know it today began to emerge and politics got in the way of the progress Brownell had trumpeted. The flight of thousands of Haitian refugees from the violence and repression of the Duvalier regime prompted a reversal, one adopted by President Ronald Reagan’s INS explicitly for the purpose of deterring Haitians from attempting flight.ix The formalization of a policy of detention for immigration processing was met with litigation and alarm; those opposing the change included the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who noted that the policy violated the United Nations Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, to which the United States is party.x Over the course of the 1990s, this retrogressive policy change became entrenched. The same policies and political rhetoric that resulted in the mass incarceration of communities of color in American jails and prisons fueled the expansion of the immigration detention system into for- profit prisons and county jails.xi Scholar César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández describes that, “[f]ollowing the model of the policy reforms shaping criminal law and procedure in the late 2 1970s and 1980s—best illustrated by the ‘broken windows theory’ of criminal policing—the regulation of migrants and migration took a punitive bent. Security became the prism through which migration was examined, and policing became the key response of choice.”xii From 1994 to 2000, the system nearly tripled—jumping from a detained population of 6,785 to 19,458.xiii In 2004, journalist Mark Dow published a book exposing the depths of the secrets and abuses occurring within what he referred to as the “American gulag”—“a particular prison system operated by the INS or, since early 2003, by the BICE [Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as it was known]—with an astonishing lack of accountability, not only to outside criticism, but to the rest of the government as well.”xiv Dow warned that the shifting of immigration enforcement functions from INS to ICE, an enforcement-only agency within the newborn Department of Homeland Security (DHS), would likely pull the “secretive immigration prison ICE detention: world … even further from public average daily population scrutiny.”xv A former INS District Chief of 1994 - 2019 Detention and Removals reinforced these 60000 concerns in interviews with Dow, noting 50000 that the federal immigration detention 40000 system was quickly becoming a “mini- 30000 BOP” but lacking entirely in the infrastructure or expertise to safely detain 20000 individuals in such numbers.xvi Under the 10000 aegis of ICE and over the course of 0 administrations of both political parties, the 2008 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 1994 system ballooned. By 2016, ICE was jailing an average of 34,376 people daily.xvii Massive expansion under the Trump administration Over the course of only two and a half years, this administration has grown the already massive immigration detention infrastructure it inherited by 50%.xviii This growth has been achieved in direct violation of congressional intent. For two years running, congressional appropriators have explicitly instructed ICE to reduce its detained population,xix and both years ICE has responded with tremendous growth, even during the 2018-2019 government shut-down.xx As Fiscal Year 2019 concludes, ICE is jailing 11,000 more immigrants on a daily basis than their appropriated budget allows.xxi This executive end-run around congressional intent has been achieved largely through the persistent transfer of funds away from disaster relief and other domestic priorities to compensate for ICE’s over-spending on detention.xxii 3 Much of this growth is driven by the for-profit prison industry, which has spent more than $25 million lobbying lawmakers and federal agencies over the past ten years, including $3.8 million just in 2018.xxiii A recent analysis of government contract data by Bloomberg News found CoreCivic Inc. and GEO Group—the two largest private prison companies operating immigration jails—to have received boosts of $85 million and $121 million respectively over the past four fiscal years as government contract spending for immigration enforcement and detention has skyrocketed.xxiv As of 2017, approximately 70% of people in immigration detention were held in privately operated jails.xxv The administration’s commitment to expanding the incarceration of immigrants was signaled from nearly day one. The White House’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018 sought $2.7 billion to ramp up detention capacity to 51,379, a number it has now surpassed with 51,814 behind bars.xxvi It is important to ask: why were these efforts so important to the nascent administration? With two and a half years behind us, we now know that the administration has carefully designed its immigration policies to inflict maximum cruelty on immigrants in an effort to deter asylum seekers and cause fear among immigrant communities.xxvii We also know that the administration saw the decades-old experiment with the incarceration of immigrants as one of its most powerful tools toward those goals. A system designed for cruelty: corruption, abuses, and impunity It should stand as a sharp warning to Members of Congress that the administration sees the immigration detention system as a critical component of its efforts to make the American immigration system so unbearable for immigrants as to deter them from coming in the first place. But it is also not surprising. As noted above, today’s immigration detention system is a larger and more sprawling outgrowth of the system the Reagan administration put in place with the stated purpose of deterring Haitian migrants from fleeing to the United States.xxviii From the start, the system was built to isolate immigrants during their case proceedings, far from legal counsel, out of the public eye and without sufficient mechanisms for redress or accountability for abuses. Immigrants in custody are facing civil proceedings and therefore many of the constitutional protections afforded in the criminal legal system to do not apply, creating a dangerous legal space for immigrants in civil custody that is punitive by every measure of the word.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Blacks and Asians in Mississippi Masala, Barriers to Coalition Building
    Both Edges of the Margin: Blacks and Asians in Mississippi Masala, Barriers to Coalition Building Taunya Lovell Bankst Asians often take the middle position between White privilege and Black subordination and therefore participate in what Professor Banks calls "simultaneous racism," where one racially subordinatedgroup subordi- nates another. She observes that the experience of Asian Indian immi- grants in Mira Nair's film parallels a much earlier Chinese immigrant experience in Mississippi, indicatinga pattern of how the dominantpower uses law to enforce insularityamong and thereby control different groups in a pluralistic society. However, Banks argues that the mere existence of such legal constraintsdoes not excuse the behavior of White appeasement or group insularityamong both Asians and Blacks. Instead,she makes an appealfor engaging in the difficult task of coalition-buildingon political, economic, socialand personallevels among minority groups. "When races come together, as in the present age, it should not be merely the gathering of a crowd; there must be a bond of relation, or they will collide...." -Rabindranath Tagore1 "When spiders unite, they can tie up a lion." -Ethiopian proverb I. INTRODUCTION In the 1870s, White land owners recruited poor laborers from Sze Yap or the Four Counties districts in China to work on plantations in the Mis- sissippi Delta, marking the formal entry of Asians2 into Mississippi's black © 1998 Asian Law Journal, Inc. I Jacob A. France Professor of Equality Jurisprudence, University of Maryland School of Law. The author thanks Muriel Morisey, Maxwell Chibundu, and Frank Wu for their suggestions and comments on earlier drafts of this Article. 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Xenophobia, Nativism and Pan-Africanism in 21St Century Africa
    H-Africa Xenophobia, Nativism and Pan-Africanism in 21st Century Africa Document published by Sabella Abidde on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 cfp-2-xenophobianativismpanafricanism.pdf cfp-2-xenophobianativismpanafricanism.pdf Description: CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS Xenophobia, Nativism and Pan-Africanism in 21st Century Africa Sabella Abidde and Emmanuel Matambo (Editors) The purpose of this project is to examine the mounting incidence of xenophobia and nativism across the African continent. Second, it seeks to examine how invidious and self-immolating xenophobia and nativism negate the noble intent of Pan-Africanism. Finally, it aims to examine the implications of the resentments, the physical and mental attacks, and the incessant killings on the psyche, solidarity, and development of the Black World. According to Michael W. Williams, Pan-Africanism is the cooperative movement among peoples of African origin to unite their efforts in the struggle to liberate Africa and its scattered and suffering people; to liberate them from the oppression and exploitation associated with Western hegemony and the international expansionism of the capitalist system. Xenophobia, on the other hand, is the loathing or fear of foreigners with a violent component in the form of periodic attacks and extrajudicial killings committed mostly by native-born citizens. Nativism is the policy and or laws designed to protect the interests of native-born citizens or established residents. The project intends to argue that xenophobia and nativism negate the intent, aspiration, and spirit of Pan-Africanism as expressed by early proponents such as Edward Blyden, W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, George Padmore, Léopold Senghor, Jomo Kenyatta, Aimé Césaire, and Kwame Nkrumah.
    [Show full text]
  • Immigration Policy As a Defense of White Nationhood
    Loyola University Chicago, School of Law LAW eCommons Faculty Publications & Other Works 2020 Immigration Policy as a Defense of White Nationhood Juan F. Perea Loyola University Chicago School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lawecommons.luc.edu/facpubs Part of the Immigration Law Commons Recommended Citation Juan F. Perea, Immigration Policy as a Defense of White Nationhood, 12 GEO. J. L. & MOD. CRITICAL RACE PERSPEC. 1 (2020). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by LAW eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications & Other Works by an authorized administrator of LAW eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ARTICLE Immigration Policy as a Defense of White Nationhood JUAN F. PEREA* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. THE FRAMERS' WISH FOR A WHITE AMERICA ................... 3 II. THE CYCLES OF MEXICAN EXPULSION ........................ 5 III. DEPORTATION AND MASS EXPULSION: SOCIAL CONTROL TO KEEP AMERICA WH ITE .................... ....................... 11 President Trump has declared war on undocumented immigrants. Attempting to motivate his voters before the 2018 mid-term elections, President Trump sought to sow fear by escalating his anti-immigrant rhetoric.1 Trump labeled a caravan of Central American refugees seeking asylum as an "invasion" and a "crisis" that demanded, in his view, the use of military troops to defend the U.S. border with Mexico. 2 When the caravan arrived, the border patrol used tear gas on the refugees, including mothers with infant children.3 Trump also referred to undocumented immigrants as criminals, rapists, and gang members who pose a direct threat to the welfare of "law-abiding" people.4 Despite the imagery of invasion, crisis, and crime disseminated by President Trump, undocumented immigrants pose no such threats.
    [Show full text]
  • LITERATURE REVIEW Examples
    Here are some examples of literature reviews to help you grasp what I mean by synthesis of materials: http://sociology2community.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/example_litreview_emsc_lit.pdf http://sociology2community.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/childhealth_litrev.pdf Here is an example of a recent literature review I did for a journal article. LITERATURE REVIEW Nativism and Racism – Separate Phenomena Most scholars want to define nativism and racism as two distinct phenomena. On one hand, nativism is an ideological belief based on nationalist sentiment and separates “natives” from “foreigners” (Galindo and Vigil 2006). Higham (1955:4) defines nativism as an: “intense opposition to an internal minority on the ground of its foreign (i.e., ‘un-American’) connections…a zeal to destroy the enemies of a distinctively American way of life.” Also, Higham (1999:384) states that “nativism always divided insiders, who belonged to the nation, from outsiders, who were in it but not of it.” Nativism frequently becomes imbedded in social structures, shaping the treatment of foreigners within institutions, deciding “who counts as an American” (Galindo and Vigil 2006:422; Higham 1955; Knobel 1996). Nativism rises up during times of national crisis through anti-immigrant sentiment that emphasizes fears that foreigners are either threatening or taking over culturally, politically, or economically. These national calamities usually include economic downturns, wars (or terrorist attacks), or sudden increases in visibility due to the size or concentration of immigrant populations (Galindo and Vigil 2006; Higham 1955; Perea 1997; Portes and Rumbaut 2006; Sánchez 1997). Systematic actions influenced by nativism have included restrictive immigration policies and laws, increases in riots and hate crimes, and the rise of nativist organizations.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Indigenizing Spaces: How Mapping Racial Violence Shows the Interconnections Between
    “Re-Indigenizing Spaces: How Mapping Racial Violence Shows the Interconnections Between Settler Colonialism and Gentrification” By Jocelyn Lopez Senior Honors Thesis for the Ethnic Studies Department College of Letters and Sciences Of the University of California, Berkeley Thesis Advisor: Professor Beth Piatote Spring 2020 Lopez, 2 Introduction Where does one begin when searching for the beginning of the city of Inglewood? Siri, where does the history of Inglewood, CA begin? Siri takes me straight to the City History section of the City of Inglewood’s website page. Their website states that Inglewood’s history begins in the Adobe Centinela, the proclaimed “first home” of the Rancho Aguaje de la Centinela which housed Ignacio Machado, the Spanish owner of the rancho who was deeded the adobe in 1844. Before Ignacio, it is said that the Adobe Centinela served as a headquarters for Spanish soldiers who’d protect the cattle and springs. But from whom? Bandits or squatters are usually the go to answers. If you read further into the City History section, Inglewood only recognizes its Spanish and Mexican past. But where is the Indigenous Tongva-Gabrielino history of Inglewood? I have lived in Inglewood all of my life. I was born at Centinela Hospital Medical Center on Hardy Street in 1997. My entire K-12 education came from schools under the Inglewood Unified School District. While I attend UC Berkeley, my family still lives in Inglewood in the same house we’ve lived in for the last 23 years. Growing up in Inglewood, in a low income, immigrant family I witnessed things in my neighborhood that not everyone gets to see.
    [Show full text]
  • Competing for Capitalized Power in Locally Controlled Immigration Enforcement
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research John Jay College of Criminal Justice 2017 The punishment marketplace: Competing for capitalized power in locally controlled immigration enforcement Daniel L. Stageman CUNY John Jay College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_pubs/159 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Article Theoretical Criminology 1–20 The punishment © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav market place: Compet ing for DOI: 10.1177/1362480617733729 capitalized power in locally journals.sagepub.com/home/tcr controlled immigration enforcement Daniel L St agem an John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA A bst r act Neoliberal economics play a significant role in U S so ci al o r ganizat io n, imposing market logics on public services and driving the cultural valo r izat io n o f fr ee mar ket i deo lo gy. The neoliberal ‘project of inequalit y’ is upheld by an aut horitarian system of punishment built around t he social control of the under class—amo ng t hem unauthorized immigr ants. This work lays out t he theory of t he punishment marketplace: a conceptualization of how US systems of punishment both enable the neoliberal project of inequality, and are t hemselves subject to market colonizat io n. The t heor y descr ibes t he r escaling of feder al aut hor it y t o local centers of political power.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Latina/O Critical Race Theory (Latcrit) and Racist Nativism to Explore Intersectionality in the Educational Experiences of Undocumented Chicana College Students
    EducationalLindsay Foundations, Pérez Winter-SpringHuber 2010 Using Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and Racist Nativism To Explore Intersectionality in the Educational Experiences of Undocumented Chicana College Students By Lindsay Pérez Huber Introduction One of the most powerful elements of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education is that it provides criti- cal researchers with a lens not offered by many other theoretical frameworks—that is, the ability to examine Lindsay Pérez Huber is a how multiple forms of oppression can intersect within postdoctoral scholar at UC/ACCORD the lives of People of Color and how those intersec- (All Campus Consortium on tions manifest in our daily experiences to mediate our Research for Diversity) in the education. A theoretical branch extending from CRT is Graduate School of Education Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), which examines and Information Studies at the experiences unique to the Latina/o community such as University of California, Los immigration status, language, ethnicity, and culture Angeles. (Solorano & Delgado Bernal, 2001). A LatCrit analysis 77 Undocumented Chicana College Students has allowed researchers to develop the conceptual framework of racist nativism, a lens that highlights the intersection of racism and nativism (Pérez Huber, et. al., 2008). This article examines how a racist nativism framework can help understand the experiences of undocumented Chicana college students attending a public research university in California. First, this article will provide a brief descrip- tion of how CRT and, in particular, LatCrit have allowed researchers to develop the frame of racist nativism. Second, the framework of racist nativism will be described, including how it is used in this study.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Nativism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in Europe
    MWP 2016/20 Max Weber Programme The Concept of Nativism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in Europe AuthorAitana GuiaAuthor and Author Author European University Institute Max Weber Programme The Concept of Nativism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in Europe Aitana Guia EUI Working Paper MWP 2016/20 This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper or other series, the year, and the publisher. ISSN 1830-7728 © Aitana Guia, 2016 Printed in Italy European University Institute Badia Fiesolana I – 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy www.eui.eu cadmus.eui.eu Abstract In this paper, I argue that the competitive advantage of the concept of nativism is four fold. First, nativism is a particular construction of nationalism and as such builds on a nationalist epistemology. Nativism, however, does not function as a nation-building ideology in the way nationalism worked in the modern period. Nativism emerges rather as a mechanism to modify already existing constructions of nationhood along ‘native’ and ‘non-native’ lines. Nativism cannot be equated with majority ethnic nationalism in that the construction of the ‘native’ community can be premised on ideological or cultural features, that is, along civic rather than ethnic lines. Second, nativism avoids the trap of reducing anti-immigrant sentiment and narratives to arguments of the populist radical right. Nativism highlights the processes by which left and right positioning is fading away in favour of the native/foreigner axis.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Report No
    SPECIAL REPORT NO. 489 | NOVEMBER 2020 UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE www.usip.org Looking for Trouble: Sources of Violent Conflict in Central Asia By Gavin Helf Contents Central Asia Today .......................3 Ethno-Nationalism and Nativism ................................. 5 Islam and Secularism .................. 6 Water Resources and Climate Change ....................7 Labor Migration and Economic Conflict .................8 Triggers: Failed Transitions, Crime, and Revolution ............... 10 Local Pushback Against Great Power ................... 11 A Comprehensive Approach ..... 15 Police wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus detain a protester during an unsanctioned protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on June 6, 2020. (Photo by Vladimir Tretyakov/AP) Summary • Central Asian states are multi- • Resource scarcity and climate • The hand of criminal organizations ethnic in their constitutions, yet change are constant sources of is often visible in mobilization to vi- a resurgence of nativism and na- regional conflict and promise to olence. Organized crime and cor- tionalism are the most common become more problematic as wa- ruption in the region exploit all of drivers of large-scale violent con- ter and other resources become these other cleavages and under- flict in the region. even more scarce. mine good governance. • Similarly, although all Central Asian • Labor migration, mostly to Russia, • Russia and China see Central Asia states are avowedly secular, the creates not only great economic as a strategic region. Whether they, region is experiencing an Islamic opportunity but a new set of so- along with the United States, share religious revival, pitting local Is- cial problems. Central Asia could a vision of stability and peace in lamic tradition against versions of learn from other Asian countries the region and can find ways to Islam from other parts of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • American Nativism and Exclusion: the Rise and Fall of the Immigration Restriction League, 1894–1921
    AMERICAN NATIVISM AND EXCLUSION: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION LEAGUE, 1894–1921 A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of The School of Continuing Studies and of The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies By Keith Jones, B.A. Georgetown University Washington, D.C. April 1, 2013 AMERICAN NATIVISM AND EXCLUSION: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION LEAGUE, 1894–1921 Keith Jones, B.A. Mentor: Kazuko Uchimura, Ph.D. ABSTRACT In the 1890s, a political movement was slowly gathering steam in the United States to restrict immigration qualitatively, via literacy tests, and quantitatively, through restrictive federal legislation. Leading the charge was the Immigration Restriction League, a Boston group that drove a nationwide campaign for requiring literacy tests for new arrivals. Unlike the Know-Nothings, the anti-Irish nativists of the 1850s, the League‘s members were Harvard-educated elitists who feared the influx of undesirables from southern and Eastern Europe. They worried that America was becoming the world‘s dumping ground for paupers, criminals, and madmen fleeing the Old World. Presidents Taft, Cleveland, and Wilson, however, vetoed the League‘s literary test provision three separate times. President Cleveland described it as ―illiberal, narrow, and un-American.‖ Additionally, the proposal failed to acknowledge the high illiteracy rates of native-born Americans particularly in rural areas and the South, and the fact that illiterate blue-collar Americans were hardly considered undesirable. Moreover, the literacy provision failed to recognize that previous exclusionist laws were ineffectual.
    [Show full text]
  • Immigration, Asylum, and Citizenship: a More Holistic Approach
    03-Lim (Do Not Delete) 8/20/2013 9:45 AM Immigration, Asylum, and Citizenship: A More Holistic Approach Julian Lim Despite obvious overlaps between immigration law, refugee law, and citizenship, legal scholars have tended to disaggregate them, studying them in isolation. This Article brings refugee law in closer conversation with both immigration law and citizenship by presenting the previously unknown history of Pershing’s Chinese refugees: 522 Chinese refugees in northern Mexico who in 1917 gained entry into the United States despite the immigration restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 1921 were granted the right to remain in the country as permanent legal residents. Using this historical case study, the Article first shows that refugee law would not exist were it not for the presence of exclusions in immigration law in the first place—in particular, race-based exclusions. The Article then demonstrates that immigration law and refugee law work dynamically together to construct what can be thought of as “second-class citizenship” for noncitizens, whereby the refugee admitted into the United States comes to occupy a liminal legal and social space. That is, the refugee “belongs” in the United States through refugee law, but at the same time should not “belong” Copyright © 2013 California Law Review, Inc. California Law Review, Inc. (CLR) is a California nonprofit corporation. CLR and the authors are solely responsible for the content of their publications. Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law. For their critical insights and encouragement at various points of working on this article, I especially thank María Cristina García, Derek Chang, Ian Haney López, Kathryn Abrams, Adrienne Davis, and Laura Rosenbury.
    [Show full text]
  • Master Plan for Aging Equity Tool
    MASTER PLAN FOR AGING EQUITY WORK GROUP EQUITY TOOL The Master Plan for Aging (MPA) will serve all older Californians across the life span. Given the growing diversity of California’s aging population in terms of racial and ethnic groups, disability, geography, income, immigration status, language, religion/faith, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and family status, the Stakeholder Advisory Committee formed the Equity Work Group (EWG) to advise on MPA recommendations and deliverables through an equity lens. To guide other MPA subgroups and subcommittees, the EWG developed a set of equity tool questions for use while forming these deliverables. Since the development of the first set of guiding questions for the MPA recommendation process, we have been struck collectively by two pandemics: COVID-19 and the public health crisis of systemic racism, most recently highlighted through police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Through these pandemics, deeply rooted inequities have been become widely apparent and undeniable, making it an utmost responsibility to seek equity through all MPA recommendations. “The route to achieving equity will not be accomplished through treating everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating everyone justly according to their circumstances.” — Paula Dressel, Race Matters Institute Equity is a goal that can be reached through a pathway of equality. As members of the EWG, our principles are seen through an equity lens. An equity lens requires framing and developing strategies to equalize resources and opportunities as a further step toward justice. These principles include, but are not limited to, the following: • Equity must be embedded in decision-making during the formation stages of any recommendation.
    [Show full text]